FERRUM, VA – The Randolph College men's tennis team opened up its 2017 spring with a tough dual match at Ferrum College on Saturday. The WildCats battled the Panthers over several hours, and earned the 5-4 victory.

Doubles started the day and the WildCats featured experience across the pairings. While only one pairing had played together multiple times, another had been together and there was only one junior. That junior, Bradley Strober, is an All-ODAC player and he teamed with Doug Corbett at number one. The All-ODAC pairing played well, but fell to a very tough team. Tuan Tran played with Trevor Johnson and just as they did in their lone match together during last season, the seniors won handedly. Tran and Johnson gave up only three games, winning 8-3.

Two doubles featured JT von Seggern and Kyle Unruh. Unruh, playing in his first match since moving over from the soccer pitch, and von Seggern played another tough pairing. In their first action together, the seniors won 8-5.

With the WildCats leading 2-1 entering singles, Strober was the first to take the court at number one. He dropped the first game but then won six of seven for a 6-2 set win. Strober continued that work in the second, taking the match with another 6-2 set victory. Von Seggern and Johnson played at two and three respectively. Von Seggern won his 2017 opener 6-3, 6-3, while Johnson gave up one less game (6-2, 6-3) on the way to a clinching win.

Despite the win being clinched, there were still three more matches to be played. Doug Corbett played at number four in one of the top matches of the day. Corbett needed a tiebreak in the first set, but came away with a 7-6 victory. He fell in the second by a narrow 6-4 margin, setting up a super tiebreak. Him and Caleb Bellamy went back and forth, but Bellamy secured the win at 11-9. However, Corbett was the not only one who went to a super tiebreak.

Tran, competing at the fifth spot, fell in a first set tiebreak to Garrett Freese. He responded with a convincing second set, 6-3 win, setting up that super tiebreak. The two players went back and forth throughout, and it ended in favor of Freese with the same score that befell Corbett. Joe Kaneda rounded out the singles action, stepping in at number six. He dropped a close first set, before winning the second 6-3. It set up a final super tiebreak. However, Kaneda dropped the tiebreak.

Randolph (2-0 overall) will have a week before its next match. The team comes home on Saturday to take on Division II Shepherd University (3-1) at 1 p.m.